Our Daily Bird 38: The Intelligence of Crows
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 6:25AM This afternoon I left a bag of groceries outside in the snow to make some space for them in the freezer. I came upstairs to an odd sound - was the cat outside, scratching at the door? No. It was an enormous crow, or maybe even a raven, pecking at the frozen chicken. Erg.
The upside of that encounter was that it reminded me of this TED talk by Joshua Klein, on the intelligence of crows. He's developed a vending machine for crows that explores the possibility of changing our mutual relationship for the better. In his own words:
A decade ago a friend told me it’d be impossible to get crows to do anything useful, and that killing them all off would be better. Finally, I did something about it to prove him wrong.
Synanthropes are animals that live near humans, and they’re an unusual type of species of which crows are an unusually smart example. The crowbox is a means of creating a mutually beneficial relationship with them – instead of trying to destroy them.
Oh, and one last thing - Joshua Klein is on Twitter: @joshuaklein.
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Reader Comments (3)
That is so amazing! I saw the documentary A Murder of Crows a year or so ago and have been looking at crows differently ever since, but Joshua Klein's idea of being able to have a mutually beneficial relationship with them is so cool.
I thought of your post this morning during my morning run when I saw the crows eating mussels, after dropping the shells on the seawall path, near Kits Beach. I've long admired and respected crows for their intelligence. Could I ever like them? I don't know. Perhaps if I don't think too hard about what they eat (as in baby birds and eggs.)
So as soon as I got home, I began watching the video was totally blown away by the crow bending the wire to make a tool and stayed totally engrossed for the full 10 minutes. Scary smart.
Yes, wouldn't it be wonderful to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with crows.
Thanks for this post and opening up my mind.
Isn't this fascinating? So glad to share it with you. :)